In connection with the integration of Ukraine into the European community, there is a need for a more substantive study of the European experience of education and upbringing, in particular the legacy of representatives of «Christian humanism». European humanism had a common Renaissance foundation, but the emphasis in different currents did not coincide.The religious and philosophical movement «devoteo moderna» (founder G. Grote) was propagated in Germany and the Netherlands. Its representatives supported the individualization of education, moral perfection of the individual through persistent mental and emotional work, «imitation of Christ», reading religious literature, caring for the sick and the unable. They had an initiative to establish fraternal schools, and later – the organization of book printing.The main propagandist of the ideas of spirituality in England became the group of «Oxford intellectuals (reformers)» (V. Grossin, J. Colet, V. Lilly, T. Linekr, etc.). The group developed the idea of renewal of society through enlightenment, propaganda of morality on the model of Gospel and practices of early Christianity.J. Kolet called for the restoration of the true meaning of the teachings of Christ by addressing the project of creating a new grammatical school with a humanistic program of education and upbringing.T. Moore and H. Vives continued the ideas of Pico della Mirandolly, partly Gallic priests-druids. T. Moore linked the spiritual development of a person with the socio-political transformations of society on the basis of «true» Christian ethics in the mould of the doctrine of Christ, a broad tolerance. The teaching of children in the state of utopians was practiced by priests as «"guardians of traditions».«Philosophy of Christ» by Erasmus of Rotterdam was formed under the influence of «new piety», the ideas of J. Kolet, Florentine Neoplatonism and early Christian patristic literature. He believed that ritualism should not interfere with the true meaning of Christ's doctrine, urged as soon as possible to begin the upbringing of a Christian, to maintain self-perfection through reflection and confession. «Mentor of Europe» offered the actual ethical principles and values for the present.In our time, when searches for new forms and methods of spiritual and moral education in the conditions of overcoming the spiritual crisis are conducting, it is useful to apply to the pedagogical ideas and experience of humanists of the epoch of the European Renaissance, verified by centuries of practice.